1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus and an imaging method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an imaging apparatus such as a digital camera and a video camera uses a facial recognition technique for recognizing whether the face of a person is included in a subject by extracting features of the face of the person from image data obtained by imaging the subject. In the facial recognition technique, a method using a visible light image is highly reliable, but the visible light image does not produce any difference between a figure of an actual person and a figure of a person printed on a printed material such as a poster and a picture. Therefore, since the printed figure may not be distinguished from the figure of the actual person based on the visible light image, the face may be recognized erroneously.
FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a portion of a configuration of an ordinary imaging apparatus. In FIG. 14, a facial position identifying unit 12 and an imaging unit 20 mainly including a lens 18, a solid-state imaging device 2, and an infrared light cut filter 22 are extracted from the ordinary imaging apparatus for convenience of explanation. As shown in FIG. 14, the facial position identifying unit 12 directly receives a visible light image from the imaging unit 20, receives the visible light image which has been processed by an image processing unit (not shown), or receives the visible light image which is stored in a memory (not shown) upon being subjected to various processings.
It is generally known that a living body such as a human emits infrared light. In relation to detection of living body, there is a technique using an infrared camera capable of detecting infrared light. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. H5-297152 and No. 2005-197914 disclose techniques for distinguishing a figure of an actual person from a figure drawn on a poster and the like by recognizing the face of the person in a subject, thus recognizing the figure of the actual person (living body).